35-year minimum sentence for man convicted of 2012 double murder

Mervin Cameron, the man who last year brought a successful challenge to the Constitutional Court over his extended incarceration in jail while awaiting trial for a double murder, has been sentenced to life imprisonment for the offences over a year later.

Cameron was convicted in the Home Circuit Court in May of this year for the murder of 43-year-old Barrington Davis, then deputy chief of security for Jamaica Post, and his female friend, Patricia Lumont-Barnswell.

High Court Judge, Justice Georgiana Fraser, ordered that Cameron serve 35 years in prison before being eligible for parole consideration.

The allegations were that in August of 2012, Cameron and a male accomplice kidnapped Davis and Lumont-Barnswell from the former deputy security chief’s home in St John’s Heights, St Catherine.

Weeks later, their decomposing bodies were found in Innswood, also in St Catherine, with multiple gunshot wounds.

Following intense investigations, Cameron and another man, Christopher Wilson, were arrested and charged with the heinous crimes in 2013.

Wilson has since absconded bail and has not been located by the police to stand trial. Since being placed before the court, Cameron was repeatedly refused bail, and the matter was stalled in court.

His attorney, Hugh Wildman, in April of 2017, filed a constitutional motion in the Supreme Court, which asked for Cameron's immediate release on the grounds that his constitutional rights were being breached as a result of the delay in his trial.

The motion was successful last year, and the Constitutional Court ruled that Cameron's right to be tried within a reasonable time was violated and that he is to be awarded damages.

The court did not make a decision on the amount to be awarded to Cameron at the time, pending the outcome of his murder trial, which has now been concluded with his conviction and sentencing.

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